Cover not available
Part of
Boundaries, Phases and Interfaces: Case studies in honor of Violeta Demonte
Edited by Olga Fernández-Soriano, Elena Castroviejo Miró and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 239] 2017
► pp. 47–62

Does the verb raise to T in Spanish?

| Rutgers University
| Rutgers University

We test adverb-verb word orders in Peruvian Spanish against analyses of verb movement (Pollock 1989, Embick & Noyer 2001). While the preferred order is V-adv-O, the alternative Adv-V-O is also possible. We propose that the verb raises in overt syntax and morphological insertion targets either the higher or the lower position. In the latter case, morphological requirements force the more computationally costly option of T-to-V lowering. We analyze the ungrammaticality of neg-adv-V as a blocking of the selectional restriction requirements of neg (the extended verbal projection, including T) by the intervening adverb. This distribution is parallel to English do-insertion in negative contexts (I don’t frequently eat vs. * I not frequently eat), where neg selects for a -T category (cf. Williams 1994).

Keywords: word order, adverb, raising, negation, morphological merger
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.On V-to-T movement
  • 3.Verb-raising in Spanish
  • 4.Experimental data from Spanish
    • 4.1Tasks
    • 4.2Results
  • 5.Discussion and analysis
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.239.03cam
References
Ayoun, Dalila
2005 Verb movement phenomena in Spanish: “Mixed languages” and bilingualism. In ISB4: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, James Cohen, Kara T. McAlister, Kellie Rolstad & Jeff MacSwan (eds), 143–163. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Belletti, Adriana
1990 Generalized Verb Movement. Turin: Rosenberg and Sellier.Google Scholar
Benedicto, Elena
1998 Verb movement and its effects on determinerless plural subjects. In Romance Linguistics. Theoretical Perspectives [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 160], Armin Schwegler, Bernard Tranel & Miriam Uribe-Etxebarria (eds), 25–40. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Biberauer, Teresa. & Roberts, Ian
2010 Subjects, tense and verb-movement. In Parametric Variation: Null Subjects in Minimalist Theory, Teresa Biberauer, Anders Holmberg, Ian Roberts & Michelle Sheehan (eds), 263–302. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Bosque, Ignacio
1980 Sobre la negación. Madrid: Cátedra.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
2000 Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In Step by Step: Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, Roger Martin, David Michaels & Juan Uriagereka (eds), 89–156. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
1999 Adverbs and Functional Heads: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Costa, João
1998 Word Order Variation: A Constraint-Based Approach. PhD dissertation, HIL/Leiden University.Google Scholar
Embick, David & Noyer, Rolf
2001 Movement operations after syntax. Linguistic Inquiry 32: 555–595. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Emonds, Joseph
1978 The verbal complex v’–v in French. Linguistic Inquiry 9: 151–175.Google Scholar
Galves, Charlotte
1994 V-movement, levels of representation and the structure of S. Letras de Hoje 96: 35–58.Google Scholar
Goodall, Grant
1999 On preverbal subjects in Spanish. In Current Issues in Romance Languages [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 220], Teresa Satterfield, Christina Tortora & Diana Cresti (eds), 95–110 Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Koeneman, Olaf & Neeleman, Ad
2001 Predication, verb movement and the distribution of expletives. Lingua 111: 189–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laka, Itziar
1990 Negation in Syntax. On the Nature of Functional Categories and Projections. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Matushansky, Ora
2006 Head movement in linguistic theory. Linguistic Inquiry 37: 69–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ordóñez, Francisco
1997 Word Order and Clause Structure in Spanish and Other Romance Languages. PhD dissertation, The City University of New York.Google Scholar
Pollock, Jean-Yves
1989 Verb movement, universal grammar, and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 365–424.Google Scholar
Suñer, Margarita
1994 V-movement and the licensing of argumental wh-phrases in Spanish. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 12: 335–372. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline
2000 Setting parametric limits on dialectal variation in Spanish. Lingua 110: 315–341. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Williams, Edwin
1994 A reinterpretation of evidence for verb movement in French. In Verb Movement, David Lightfoot & Norbert Hornstein (eds), 189–206. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zagona, Karen
2002 The Syntax of Spanish. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Camacho, José
2019. Negative Idioms. In Exploring Interfaces, ► pp. 111 ff. DOI logo
Koronkiewicz, Bryan
2022. Adverbs in Spanish–English code-switching: Comparing verb raising and non-raising. International Journal of Bilingualism 26:2 ► pp. 227 ff. DOI logo
Tescari Neto, Aquiles
2020. Chapter 7. Diagnosing verb raising. In Brazilian Portuguese, Syntax and Semantics [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 260], ► pp. 168 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 march 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.